Ukraine has recently reported, for the fourth time, to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child about the conditions for children in Ukraine and the compliance with their rights. We remind our readers that 20 years ago Ukraine adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and committed itself to adhere to it. This year Ukraine’s governmental delegation comprised specialists from the government’s Department for the Adoption and Protection of Children, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Public Health and other institutions, including the military and police branches of government. However, only the NGOs’ representatives, who also took part in the presentation of the report, were eager to comment on this “examination.”
According to the Ukrainian NGO Child Protective Service, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child consists of representatives from 16 countries, including China, Italy, Thailand, Germany, Chile, Switzerland and Peru, who are well informed about our everyday life and the conditions for children in Ukraine. In particular, they know that the number of children is decreasing whereas the number of disabled children is rising, that children increasingly suffer from various diseases, that less and less healthy babies are born, that domestic violence is common, that family problems result in the highest alcohol consumption among the youth in Europe, and that, finally, families solve their problems themselves as social support is not as widespread as in Europe.
WE HAVE TO STOP PUNISHING AND START SUPPORTING FAMILIES
The greatest shame for Ukraine was to hear that violence is commonplace in our country.
“We are used to seeing moms in the streets hitting their children, little children being abused — it is something that lots of countries went through and forgot, but we still have it. The Committee is very insistent on this point: their warning concerned the relations in ordinary families. Article No. 150 of the Family Law prohibits physical punishment. This article has been in force for five years, but who knows about it? Who heeds it?” says Liudmyla Volynets, deputy director of Child Protective Service. “The path from the violence in the street to the traumatology center is, unfortunately, quite short. As for the gross violation of children’s rights, we do it when we pass a kid crying in the street because his mom punished him. This issue was particularly emphasized. Ukraine must think how to change its mentality.”
The international experts also paid great attention to the support of families, especially those who don’t earn enough for their living. They analyzed the Ukrainian legislation concerning family support and came to the conclusion that it has a lot of regulations obliging parents to do certain things.
For example, parents have to register the birth of their child within a short period of time. If they exceed this term they will be imposed a fine of three times the minimum wage.
“They wondered why we don’t organize any social work, alongside assignments and punishments, why the state doesn’t support families, and where the social workers who would motivate those families are…” continues Volynets. “They also had questions about whether Ukraine is going to change its annulment procedure. Now the law provides that parents have to bring up and educate their children, etc. If they don’t do it, they may be deprived of their rights. The Committee asked about social support for families, which should follow the government’s stick and carrot. This issue isn’t new to us, and it is considered on the state level, but in fact, we have to change our philosophy today.
The international experts also remarked that financial support itself doesn’t resolve family problems and that very often families need social support as well (for children’s conflicts in school, conflicts between children and their parents etc.). They suggested adding social support to the financial one, especially for families in crisis. We were also advised to take children from their families as a measure of last resort.
According to leading Ukrainian experts on the protection of children, the Ukrainian delegation was also criticized for its marriage age (17 years old for females and 18 years old for males). The Committee considers this to be discrimination. The UN specialists also started a heated debate about the children’s right to express their opinion. They remarked that in Ukraine “children’s words mean nothing.” According to Tetiana Kondratiuk, one of the main problems for parents having preschool children, namely the kindergartens, was discussed a lot.
“During the period of 1990-2004 the number of kindergartens decreased by 39 percent. Only in 2005 their number started gradually increasing, and by the end of 2009 they were at 63 percent of their number in 1990,” remarked Kondratiuk.
Ukraine was also criticized for insufficient breastfeeding promotion and the widespread infant milk formula commercials; for the fact that families with AIDS carriers suffer from a lack of antiretroviral drugs; that refugee-children are poorly supported; that the government delegates little authority to the NGOs for the protection of children.
POSITIVE TENDENCIES IN ADOPTION AND ALTERNATIVE FAMILY CREATION
The international experts positively assessed the work done by the government in the sphere of adoption and work with mothers wanting to leave their children. In Ukraine there are 14 mother-and-child centers (where women wishing to leave her child can, with specialists who establish whether they really can’t raise their children, and where the women can live with their children until they are 1.5 years old).
“The Committee positively assessed the united database for orphans and children deprived of parental care. However, they said that this work must go on: we have to register children in crisis and disabled children (their number increases in Ukraine every year, there are now 169,000 of them). We were advised to work out new norms for the protection of disabled children and to create conditions for those children not to be condemned to live in boarding schools, if there are problems with their parents,” says Volynets. “One more positive thing is that the situation with adoption in Ukraine and family upbringing has improved. They wanted us to explain why the Hague Convention on international adoption isn’t ratified. I’m especially glad to tell you that the government position has changed. In December the president submitted the Hague Convention to the parliament for ratification.”
At the same time Volynets, the former Head of Adoption and Child Rights Protection Department at the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport is surprised that the Department, which has to execute the Hague Convention is practically being liquidated. Boarding schools are one more burning issue. The UN Committee doesn’t see any compromises: most of the children have to be taken in by alternative families. The government, notably the Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, is discussing boarding schools now (The Day wrote about it in June 2010). By the way, according to the Law “On the provision of protection for orphans...,” children can be put into boarding schools in the last resort and only for a short period of time.
Shortly the recommendations of the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child will come to Ukraine. Obviously, some of them will concern the abovementioned problems and Ukraine will have to take steps in order to improve the situation. But whatever is planned, Ukrainian specialists opine that it’s impossible to work systematically and thoroughly without money and trained personnel.
“All of the Committee’s recommendations that will shortly come to Ukraine, will have to be executed by the Department for Adoption and Child’s Rights Protection, as well as other child protection and public services. I’m afraid that if those structures, that currently lack personnel, are modified, we’ll face very negative consequences. In 2005 there were 1,200 social workers in the child protection services throughout Ukraine and there were 40,000 homeless children. Now when there are 5,000 workers, we don’t have homeless children at all, 12,000 and not 40 are in the orphanages. When we have people working with kids, we hope to see results,” remarked the Head of the Child Protective Service.
We must also remember the national program “National action plan for the execution of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child until 2016.” We have five more years left, and what tasks still lie ahead? Until 2016 we have to assure the adoption of 25 percent of orphans and children deprived of parental care, to increase the number of orphans in the family-type orphanages and foster homes up to 80 percent, to decrease the number of homeless children by 95 percent, and to provide at least 90 percent of children with medicines for AIDS treatment at the expense of the state. As for the specialists that will work with children, it reads that: “Ninety percent of social workers trained until 2016 must be trained with the participation of the territorial community.” But who will do this necessary and noble work without money and specialists?
